3-Legged Dining Chairs

Inspired by George Nakashima’s “Mira Chair” (mid-height
version), this challenging project promises to require new skills with
hand tools and working with compound angles. Six of the chairs will
be made for the set. The prototype pictured to the left is
made of poplar and will be painted with Milk Paint and used in our guest
room after the conclusion of this project. This project should recommence
in March 2002.*

Nakashima
Mira Chair (Low Version)

* well...would you believe January 2003??

Project Construction Pictures (to date)Click on the thumbnails for a larger view in a separate
window...

The
chair seats require a glue-up to create the approximately 20" x
20" square blank necessary to form these parts. I was able to source
the 8/4 Mahogany in nice 11" wide boards, so there is only one
glue joint exactly in the middle, front to back, of each seat. This
works both functionally and atheistically for this project.

The
seat blanks are rough-cut on the band saw to their approximate final
shape. I originally intended to make use of template routing to clean
up the edges and make them all essentially identical, but decided that
was unnecessary--slight variances would not matter for this project
given the amount of hand shaping still to be done to form the completed
seat bottoms.

That
being said, the new Grizzly G-1276 combination sander that arrived in
the shop in January 2003 was just the tool to bring all the blanks “up
to the line”. This machine is also used to bevel the back and
sides of the seat after carving out the seats.

The
master template on card stock is used both to provide the shape before
cutting out the blanks and to mark for the spindle and leg holes. Here,
an awl is employed to mark the exact location of each hole to be drilled
in the next step.

An
auxiliary platform is used to hold the blank at an exact angle while
drilling for the spindles and legs. The spindles and front leg are canted
10º. The two rear legs are angled back and out 15º for additional
stability--the prototype proved to be too “tippy” when one
leans back in the seat.

Here
you can see the seat blanks drilled and ready for shaping to make for
a comfortable fit with human anatomy.

Forming
the seat contours is a lot of work. Some initial cuts are made with
a router and a round-nosed bit to rough out the flat section just in
front of the spindle locations, but the remaining wood is removed with
a variety of traditional hand tools, including drawknives, an inshave
(scorp) and several hand planes. Final sanding to contour with a belt
sander and ROS completes the shaping of the seat. The blank is then
flipped over and the front bottom is further contoured. (Not yet completed
in this photo) The final bit of work is to round over the spindle area
slightly and sand the outside bevel with the combo sander along the
back and sides--this provides about a 10º inward slope, top to
bottom, that improves the look of the seat. But wait...there’s
more...sanding, that is. Lot’s of finish sanding is necessary
to complete each seat prior to assembly and finishing. More on that
later...